Display control apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9285233-B2
Application number	US-201214127713-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 9, 2012
Priority date	Aug 11, 2011
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

A display control apparatus for controlling a display device including a screen having a plurality of areas so as to assign and display a content on a corresponding area, includes: a content managing unit managing the content by associating content information; an area managing unit managing the area by associating area information; and a content assignment control unit determining a combination of the content and the area. The content assignment control unit generates a content list, generates an area list, extracts a combination list based on the area list and the content list, calculates an evaluation reference value of each combination list based on the content information and the area information, selects the combination list based on the evaluation reference value of each combination list, and determines a combination.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A display control apparatus for controlling a display device mounted in a vehicle, the display device including a screen having a plurality of areas set as display regions, and the display control apparatus controlling the display device so as to assign a content to a corresponding area and to display the content, the display control apparatus comprising:
a content managing unit managing the content by associating content information as an attribute of the content with a corresponding content;
an area managing unit managing the area by associating area information as an attribute of the area with a corresponding area; and
a content assignment control unit determining a combination of the content managed by the content managing unit and the area managed by the area managing unit,
wherein the content assignment control unit executes:
a content list generating process for generating a content list according to contents managed by the content managing unit;
an area list generating process for generating an area list as an available combination of the areas managed by the area managing unit;
a combination list extracting process for extracting a combination of the areas and the contents as a combination list based on the area list and the content list;
an evaluation reference value calculating process for calculating an evaluation reference value of each combination list based on the content information and the area information; and
a combination determining process for comparing the combination lists to select one of the combination lists based on the evaluation reference value of each combination list, determining a combination of the contents and the areas, and displaying the selected one of the combination lists to a user.

2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the content information includes an information value indicative of a value of the content,
wherein the area information includes a region value indicative of a value of the area,
wherein, in the combination list extracting process, the information value and the region value are compared with each other, and a combination, in which the information value is larger than the region value, is extracted as the combination list.

3. The display control apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein, in the evaluation reference value calculating process, a total value of information values of the contents in each combination list is calculated as the evaluation reference value.

4. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in the evaluation reference value calculating process, a total value of evaluation values calculated from the content information and the area information is calculated as the evaluation reference value.

5. The display control apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the content information includes a content value indicative of a value of information of each display target person,
wherein the area information includes an area suitability indicative of a suitability from a viewpoint of place of each display target person, and
wherein, in the evaluation reference value calculating process, the total value of the evaluation values including a target person evaluation value calculated from the content value and the area suitability is calculated as the evaluation reference value.

6. The display control apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the content information includes a content characteristic indicative of a characteristic of the content,
wherein the area information includes an area characteristic indicative of a characteristic of the area and,
wherein, in the evaluation reference value calculating process, the total value of the evaluation values including a characteristic evaluation value calculated from the content characteristic and the area characteristic is calculated as the evaluation reference value.

7. The display control apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the content characteristic includes a visual-line characteristic indicating whether a movement of a visual line of a driver is required or not, and
wherein the area characteristic includes another visual-line characteristic indicating whether the movement of the visual line of the driver becomes larger or not.

8. The display control apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the content characteristic includes an expression power characteristic indicating whether an expression power is required or not, and
wherein the area characteristic includes another expression power characteristic indicating whether the expression power is large or not.

9. The display control apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the content characteristic includes an operation characteristic indicating whether an operation is required or not, and
wherein the area characteristic includes another operation characteristic indicating whether the operation is permissible or not.

10. The display control apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising:
a correspondence information storing unit storing correspondence information for deriving the characteristic evaluation value from the content characteristic and the area characteristic,
wherein, in the evaluation reference value calculating process, the characteristic evaluation value is derived from the content characteristic and the area characteristic based on the correspondence information stored in the correspondence information storing unit.

11. The display control apparatus according to claim 10 ,
wherein the correspondence information of the correspondence information storing unit is changeable according to a vehicle condition.

12. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the content information includes a content size as a size required for information display,
wherein the area information includes an area size as a size of the area, and
wherein, in the combination list extracting process, the area size and the content size are compared with each other, and a combination, in which the content fits in the area, is extracted as the combination list.

13. The display control apparatus according to claim 12 ,
wherein, in the evaluation reference value calculating process, a total value of difference correspondence values obtained from a difference between the area size and the content size in each combination list is calculated as the evaluation reference value.

14. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a content display information storing unit storing content display information for specifying an essential exclusion relation of the contents,
wherein, in the content list generating process, the content list is generated according to the content display information stored in the content display information storing unit.

15. The display control apparatus according to claim 14 ,
wherein the content display information is an essential exclusion constraint equation indicating an essential exclusion relation of the contents expressed by predetermined operators, and
wherein, in the content list generating process, the content list is generated so as to satisfy the essential exclusion constraint equation.

16. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an area use information storing unit storing area usage information for specifying an essential exclusion relation of the areas,
wherein, in the area list generating process, the area list is generated according to the area usage information stored in the area use information stori

Assignees

• Sugiyama Hitoshi
• Kato Shigeo
• Ueda Yoshihiro
• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Sugiyama Hitoshi
• Kato Shigeo
• Ueda Yoshihiro

Classifications

• B60K35/22

  Display screens · CPC title

• B60K35/81

  for controlling displays · CPC title

• B60K35/29

  Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions · CPC title

• B60K35/28

  characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver · CPC title

• B60K2350/352

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic